ONTOGENY of SEGMENTAL SPEECH ORGANIZATION

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的长期目标是开发一个理论帐户的儿童如何获得访问分段语音结构，因为没有明确的标志，该结构在声学信号。所采取的方法假设，成年听众访问该结构的感知组织语言相关的声学特性应用特定于语言的策略。具体而言，该模型探讨表明，儿童最初组织的声学语音信号作为一个频谱单一的整体，根据普遍的战略，然后，通过早期的语言经验，学习组织的动态组件的语音信号的语言特定的方式，并在语音决定的权重某些非动态的，频谱-时间特性，语音信息在母语。反过来，它是假设，一个或两个这些学到的策略促进恢复的节段结构。六个具体的目标，从这个模型将测试的假设，1。孩子最初对动态信号分量加权（即，共振峰运动）很大程度上是因为这些组件通常遵循听觉场景分析的原则; 2.成熟言语知觉的获得涉及动态信号特性的知觉组织的变化，这一过程被称为发展性知觉重组; 3.幼儿比成人更强烈地有义务组织语音信号作为频谱单一信号; 4.静态性能在分段结构的恢复中提供了优于动态性能的优势; 5.语音感知和对音段结构的敏感性的发育变化由于早期经验而产生（即，在学龄前）与母语，而不是从其他因素（即，一般听觉发展或识字指导）;以及6.当儿童获得母语的经验时，他们用于言语产生的手势组织发生变化。收集的数据应该推进我们的理解一般的听众如何恢复分段结构的声学信号。临床意义将来自这项工作，帮助我们了解我们应该做些什么，以促进口语发展的儿童沟通问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this project is to develop a theoretical account of how children acquire access to segmental speech structure given that there are no clear landmarks for that structure in the acoustic signal. The approach taken assumes that adult listeners access that structure by applying language-specific strategies for perceptual organization to linguistically relevant acoustic properties. Specifically the model explored suggests that children initially organize the acoustic speech signal as a spectrally unitary whole according to universal strategies, and then, through early language experience, learn to organize the dynamic components of the speech signal in language-specific ways, and to weight in phonetic decisions certain non-dynamic, spectro-temporal properties that are phonetically informative in the native language. In turn, it is hypothesized that one or both of these learned strategies facilitates recovery of segmental structure. Six specific aims derived from this model wilt test the hypotheses that: 1. children initially weight dynamic signal components (i.e., formant movements) greatly because these components generally adhere to principles of Auditory Scene Analysis; 2. the acquisition of mature speech perception involves changes in the perceptual organization of dynamic signal properties, a process termed Developmental Perceptual Reorganization; 3. young children are more strongly obliged than adults to organize speech-like signals as spectrally unitary signals; 4. static properties provide an advantage over dynamic properties in the recovery of segmental structure; 5. developmental changes in speech perception and in sensitivity to segmental structure arise due to early experience (i.e., before school age) with a native language, rather than from other factors (i.e., general auditory development or literacy instruction); and 6. children's gestural organization for speech production changes as they acquire experience with their native language. The data collected should advance our understanding generally of how listeners recover segmental structure from the acoustic signal. Clinical significance will derive from this work by helping us understand what we should be doing to promote spoken language development in children with communication problems.